In downtown Portland, trees get a celebration during Arbor Week event in the South Park Blocks

View full sizeAnne Saker/The OregonianEnvious preschoolers watch an adult take the coolest ride available Thursday in Portland, in a Parks & Recreation bucket truck during during the city's Arbor Week commemoration in the South Park Blocks called "In the Shadow of an Elm."

But the main attraction during the event, called "In the Shadow of an Elm," was the urban forester's bucket truck, where a few lucky souls got a lift to 55 feet above the ground to get a "squirrel's-eye view" of the canopy.

The South Park Block trees need TLC. The urban forester took a quick survey of the population after a mighty elm came up, root and all, two weeks ago at Southwest Jefferson and Park Avenue. The finding: The trees are stressed, and some of them may have to come down. No details on that as yet.